PichaEats: Helping Refugee Families in Malaysia Through Food and Dignity
- yanabijoor
- Nov 9
- 3 min read
The Problem PichaEats Solves
Malaysia currently has 200,000 refugees and asylum-seekers as of May 2025. Many refugees are struggling to feed their families without access to formal employment or education. PichaEats is one of several enterprises trying to give jobs to some of the refugees.
The PichaEats Solution
Founded in 2016, PichaEats is a Malaysian social enterprise offering authentic dishes prepared by refugee families, specializing in delicacies from their homelands. These dishes include Iraqi falafel, Palestinian hummus, Afghan dumplings, and Syrian sweets. PichaEats empowers refugee families to become skilled home chefs, able to earn their livelihood. They train them and help them find work, helping the refugees get back to their lives with dignity and support their families.
You can support PichaEats by ordering meal boxes in advance, or you can have them cater your event. They have catered for corporate events, weddings, and other special occasions. Its frozen food offerings, ding! by PichaEats, offer convenient heatable pre-packed meals made with fresh ingredients.
Why is it Innovative?
Lim and her two cofounders hatched the idea for PichaEats as university students six years ago, while working as volunteers teaching refugee children. Determined to help keep them in school, they approached one of the refugee mothers, a Burmese woman whose son was named Picha, and suggested selling home-cooked meals to their university friends. Naeem sells food to PichaEats, a Malaysian social enterprise, for about 2,000 ringgit ($480) a month while she waits to be resettled after fleeing to Malaysia with her family of four from Syria six years ago. Soon, it will deliver Naeem’s food to diners across Kuala Lumpur.
Now an award-winning, accredited social enterprise, PichaEats trains and employs chefs from Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan and offers a variety of home-cooked cuisine. The company has a profit margin of roughly 12%, though there are months when they barely break even, says Lee. “The balance between profit and charity is always very tough,” says Lim, who is PichaEats’ CEO.
What is the Impact?
Since its founding in 2016, PichaEats’ three founders, Lee Swee Lin, Lim Yuet Kim, and Sook Shian “Suzanne” Ling, have served 130,000 meals prepared by 100 individuals from 20 refugee families, generating 3.5 million ringgit in sales.
Moving forward, PichaEats said it was committed to educating people about Malaysia's refugee situation and the social enterprise's main drive. "At the end of the day, it is PichaEats' vision to see a world whereby everybody has rights to have hope and opportunities by enabling new beginnings for communities seeking refuge, cultivating empathy, and inspiring change through food for everyday people. Believing in equal rights for everyone, PichaEats is also committed to educating more people about the refugee situation in Malaysia and why we do what we do," the Company says.
What Needs to Improve?
To achieve scale and serve more refugees, PichaEats operations need to be strengthened, while the training programs should expand. Shared kitchen hubs would be a good investment in which refugee families can cook in bulk while maintaining food-safety standards and quality control, making production more efficient and helping to drive down costs.
PichaEats could also develop a structured training program in food safety, business management, and standardized cooking techniques. This would allow more refugees to enter the network and provide high-quality meals regularly. Experienced chefs could take on mentorship roles, helping new participants learn and succeed.
PichaEats should continue to diversify its operations from event catering into growing its frozen-meal brand, offering meal subscriptions for individuals and companies. This would mean partnering with grocery stores, hotels, and corporate cafeterias for recurring orders that increase visibility.
Finally, scaling can be further supported by technology. Development of a system to digitalize order tracking, chef earnings, and customer feedback would not only smoothen operations but also make things more transparent. At the same time, PichaEats can continue sharing its impact stories and educating the public about Malaysia's refugee situation.
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